Sustainable Tourism Committee appointed

Commissioners happy to get this going, but not thrilled with “stork” moniker

By Toni Todd

Gunnison County commissioners officially appointed members to the newly formed Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee (STORC) last week. The committee’s mission will be to address the impacts of tourism and recreation on local communities and public lands and find ways to mitigate or reduce those impacts.

STORC members represent a wide variety of stakeholders from throughout the county. They include the following representatives from various organizations and government entities:

Gunnison County, John Messner

City of Gunnison, Mallory Logan

Town of Crested Butte, Paul Merck

Town of Mt. Crested Butte, Nicholas Kempin

Town of Pitkin, to be determined

Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Chris Parmeter

U.S. Forest Service, Matt McCombs

Bureau of Land Management, Elijah Waters

National Park Service, Bruce Noble

Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association, John Norton

Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association, Bruce Allen

Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Erica Mueller

Western State Colorado University, to be determined

The committee members at large are:

Dave Ochs

Ben Breslauer

Christie Hicks

Kevin Alexander

Tim Kugler

Navid Navidi

Noel Durant

Joellen Fonken

County commissioner Jonathan Houck said he was impressed with the list of applicants, and said he expects there to be plenty of opportunity for those who applied but were not selected to participate in the process by engaging as members of subcommittees formed by the greater STORC to address specific areas.